What does the phrase Religious Experience mean?Direct Religious Experiences ­ Rudolph Otto Cases where people encounter god in a direct way EG Paul on the road to Damascus Otto pointed out the eternal element of direct experiences was an apprehension of a wholly other which was numinous Nature of the experience is ineffable Involve an experience of the divine People are aware of god and know god in an innate and personal wayIndirect Religious Experiences Experiences in which the mind of an individual focus' on god EG beauty of nature leading to thoughts about god EG prayer and worship God isn't directly revealed nor is knowledge revealed instead they learn about god through the observedTypes of Religious Experience ­ Richard SwinburnePUBLIC EXPERIENCES Ordinary Experiences Where a person interprets a natural event as having religious significance Extraordinary Experiences Experiences that appear to violate the normal understandings of the working of naturePRIVATE EXPERIENCES Describable In Ordinary Language Experiences such as dreams NonDescribable Experiences Direct experiences where the divine is revealed to people and goes beyond human powers of description NonSpecific Experiences Looking at the world form a religious perspective

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Vision Experience ­ Teresa of Ávila Divine is seen or observed Information may be revealed Awake or a dream Intellectual vision ­ the experience is seen rather than something observed EG Teresa of Ávila ­ `saw Christ at my side ­ or, to put it better I was conscious of him, for neither with the eyes of the body or of the soul did I see anything Corporeal Vision ­ sees a form or image like a physical being EG St Bernadette of Lourdes ­…read more

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William James' Argument from Religious Experience Book ­ Varieties of religious Experience Psychological approach Interested in explaining the nature of the wide variety of religious experiences people have James assumed religious experience was the source of religious institutions and central to religious belief Thought churches were secondary to religious experiences Religious experiences were where people experiences the divine Religious tradition is relatively unimportant Conversion experiences changes a persons behaviour making religion central EG Saul to Paul Conversion ­ Saul changes from a prosecutor of Christians…read more

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Are Religious Experiences Veridical? Swinburne suggested two principles used to assess claims about religious experiences 1. PRINCIPLE OF CREDULITY We have good reason to believe what a person tells us Three reasons why we have good grounds to disbelieve 1. Reasons to believe they were mistaken ­ e.g. drugs 2. Strong reasons to believe god doesn't exist 3. Evidence the event was not caused by god 2.…read more

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Physiological Challenges One argument against R.E is that they have physiological cause eg did Paul have epilepsy ­ seeing the bright light? Or a brain tumour? Weakness to the argument is not everyone who had a R.E was suffering from an illness that could cause side effects such as hallucinations, visions or delusions Psychological Challenged Sigmund Freud ­ religious experiences are a product of human psychology Would explain common occurrence of R.…read more

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R.E suggests god exists many philosophers argue that with other arguments for gods existence suggests it is likely that god exists authority of a religious experience doesn't extend past the mystic philosophical demonstration of gods existence based on religious experience is not possible if you believe in god it is rational to believe in R.E an account of R.E shouldn't be doubted without valid reasons ­ Swinburne many believe R.…read more